What is The Cloud?

The cloud is a metaphor referring to networks, specifically the Internet, that have been represented in engineering and network drawings for some time. In reality, the cloud is the latest iteration of a concept that has been called many things in the past including ASP (application service provider), on-demand, utility computing and as a service (Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service).

Computer Basics – “The Cloud”:

A pool of computing resources (servers, storage, applications, and voice services) that is provided as-needed to businesses from a provider’s network, eliminating the need for on-site equipment, maintenance, and management. Cloud technology technologies enables IT departments to increase or add capabilities as needed without purchasing equipment and software, training employees to support it, and using office space, power, and cooling to house it.

They provide end users immediate access to new, always-on features from nearly any device in any location. They also provide the business a predictable, subscription-based, pay-per-use way to fund IT.

Learn more about cloud technology in general and why Evolve IP’s cloud might be the right fit for your business:

Cloud Technology 101: Public Cloud vs. Private Cloud

What are the different types of clouds? There are many types of clouds that you can use to support your business.

Public Clouds provide a pool of shared computing resources, applications, and storage to the customer as a single virtualized service. They generally allow you to grow or shrink these resources as needed and often times provide built-in failover and redundancy. But, they are delivered (as the name suggests) publicly and in a defined fashion, so you are unable to secure your services with a private firewall or access them privately over your Wide Area Network (WAN). Public Clouds also generally require an on-staff development resource and in some cases a full re-factor of the application framework for proper functionality. The Public Cloud is generally referred to as a “revolutionary” approach to Cloud Computing as it brings many benefits but also a degree of complexity and know-how to fully leverage its capabilities.

Private Clouds provide a dedicated instance of these services for your exclusive use and, as a result, can be secured and accessed privately. While they are housed in provider’s data center, they do not leverage the pool of shared resources, so they cannot grow and shrink and do not include failover and redundancy. Private Clouds most times utilize the same technology (hardware, virtualization, security) as an on-premise deployment, but they are outsourced to a service provider for hosting and care and feeding of the environment. Visit ‘What is a private cloud‘ for more information.

Hybrid Clouds are the industry’s answer to the problems that plague both models. Use public for what it’s good for, use private for what it’s good for, and combine the two. Unfortunately, hybrid cloud solutions suffer from the complexity involved in that integration and there is a cost implication to dedicate hardware, security devices, and networking to any single customer.

The Evolve IP Cloud is a Virtual Private Cloud that leverages the scalability and failover of public cloud services with the privacy and security of dedicated environments. With end-to-end customer isolation through end-to-end Layer 2 VLANs, Evolve IP customers are logically separated from other customers across our pooled infrastructure. This gives you the ability to connect to our network privately. Moreover, the Virtual Private Cloud functions perfectly with both new and legacy applications and provides predictable, stable, and secure architecture with the resiliency and on-demand expansion capabilities that most expect with the “cloud”. Often referred to as the “evolutionary” approach, Virtual Private Cloud does not require changes to the application framework or special coding for proper migration. The Virtual Private Cloud delivers the best of both worlds.

WHY SELECT EVOLVE IP’S CLOUD?

Privacy and Security

One of the greatest strengths of the cloud is its ability to deliver services to users wherever they are. Therefore, most cloud services are delivered over the public Internet. While this is certainly convenient for home users and road warriors, it introduces risk.

Unlike our competitors, which rely on the public Internet as a primary means of access, we focus on getting you to your services privately and dependably through the Evolve IP Virtual Private Cloud, or, when required, over the public Internet in a secure and managed fashion. And, because Evolve IP is trusted by the Payment Card Industry to audit network security for businesses, you can be certain that the Evolve IP Cloud will meet standard and industry-specific privacy and security standards.

Commercial Focus and Experience

Evolve IP is not a big box manufacturer or software company that has decided to start delivering services in the cloud. We’re also not a small cloud company selling a single service over the Internet. Evolve IP has been purposely built to service real businesses, to actually install the services we sell, and to support you via a technical engineering team, not an outsourced customer service company, (Have you called Microsoft for support lately?)
This culture has enabled us to become one of the fastest growing cloud providers in the U.S.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

What will Evolve IP’s Cloud Deliver to my Business?

Evolve IP provides you a better way to buy and manage your technology. Specifically, that means better. . .

Simplicity – We have built our platforms, integrated all of the technologies you need and can deliver them to you right now as a subscription-based service.

Economics – Lower Total Cost of Ownership than on-site equipment provided via a predictable monthly expense without the need for up-front or ongoing CAPEX.

Productivity – Get more done with new features and get back time spent maintaining legacy technology.

Stability – Services from Evolve IP are delivered from diverse technology centers over multiple carriers, ensuring that services are available regardless of conditions at your location.

Performance – Our solutions are implemented with guaranteed SLAs to satisfy the needs of your organization.

Control – Enjoy unmatched control and point-and-click configuration over all services through our award-winning OSSmosis Portal.

Focus on Core Business – Outsource the technologies that support the business, so your people can focus on running it.

MOVE TO THE CLOUD

I’m convinced. What kind of technology can I move to the Evolve IP Cloud?

Evolve IP has built world-class data centers on best-of-breed technologies from Cisco, EMC, VMWare, and Broadsoft, and connected various tier-one carriers to create our Private Cloud.
Once you’re connected, we can help you cloudsource/outsource your various technologies or to augment your existing investment, by addressing only areas of immediate need.
Our cloud-based solutions include: Applications, such as phone and call center services, email, and virtual desktops; Infrastructure, such as networks, switches, routers, virtual servers, and management; and a set of Security services to keep your business and your cloud private.

The Evolve IP Compliance CloudTM

Compliance is a way to do business … not an afterthought when clients need it.

At Evolve IP we have a dedicated compliance and security practice and work with two of the world’s top 3rd-party compliance auditors, Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young, to enable customers to extend their compliance to our fully audited cloud. This focus allows us to deliver the documentation and assurances that other’s simply cannot including HIPAA / HITRUST, PCI-DSS (all 12 sections), SOC 2/3 and more. The Compliance CloudTM includes true client isolation, encryption in transit and at rest, private VLANs, firewalls and dozens of other security measures.

What Our Clients Say

"Yesterday was, perhaps, my busiest day of client interaction either by phone or email since I have been a PM, and I don’t think any of my clients knew I was working from home unless I told them. I was also able to do trades behind the scene and interact with my team. So, for me, the technology has been working great. As an old guy, I am constantly dazzled by technology in general, but being able to do this stuff from home is amazing!"

James C. Hunter, CFA, CFP, AIF, Senior Portfolio Manager, Principal

"Hey, IT people, As I’m working away in my home office, I just wanted to say thanks to you for all you’re doing, and have done in the past, to make it possible for us to run our company virtually. Not many of us JICers have jobs that everyone in the firm sees and could stop us from doing business. But you have this job, and do it well. Thank you for having the foresight and wisdom to get us in a position to succeed in a pandemic! You’re awesome."

Michael D. Barnes, Esq., CTFA President, Principal

“That’s the type of proposition I like to bring to a Board of Directors. When I can say, ‘we can get everything new, be completely redundant, it can meet all of our needs and oh, by the way, we are going to save over $300,000 a year.’ It makes it easy for me to sell!”

"The people that Evolve IP are more personable; you don't feel like there's necessarily a script when you're talking with them, they’re easy to understand, quick to get a hold of, and they follow through on what they say they're going to do."

HITRUST

Evolve IP is proud to have achieved the honor of being HITRUST CSF certified! Certification to the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) affirms that all of Evolve IP’s cloud computing and cloud communications services adhere to the strictest security standards for electronic protected health information (PHI). The HITRUST security standard was developed by and for the healthcare industry as a means of going above and beyond the compliance requirements of HIPAA.

The HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) was developed to address the multitude of security, privacy and regulatory challenges facing healthcare organizations. The HITRUST CSF was developed by healthcare and IT professionals to provide an efficient and prescriptive framework for managing the security requirements inherent in HIPAA. HITRUST CSF rationalizes healthcare-relevant regulations and standards into a single overarching security framework. An important part of the “What is HITRUST” answer is understanding that the CSF is risk-based and compliance-based so that organizations can tailor the security control baselines and vendor management programs that they follow based on their specific organization type, size, systems, and regulatory requirements.

HIPPA

The Privacy regulations of the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) require health care providers, organizations, and their business associates, develop and follow procedures that ensure the confidentiality and security of protected health information (PHI) when it is transferred, received, handled, or shared. This applies to all forms of PHI — paper, oral, and electronic, etc. Those who fail to adhere to HIPAA can suffer from huge fines climbing into the millions of dollars for major violations.

The Compliance Cloud™ fully enables covered entities and their business associates subject to HIPAA regulations to leverage a secure environment to process, maintain, and store protected health Information (PHI) featuring among other controls.

SSAW 16 Service Organization Control II (SOC 2)

Evolve IP has received an SSAE 16 SOC 2 Type II report on our internal controls relating to how we assess and address the potential risks associated with the security, availability, and confidentiality of not only the cloud-based services that we provide, but also our physical and logical infrastructure. Evolve IP utilizes the Certified Public Accounting firm of Grant Thornton to perform its annual audit and attestation in accordance with the Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 and the associated Trust Services Principles, as published by the AICPA, to evaluate the effectiveness of Evolve IP’s service organizations controls.

Forbes

While Forbes regularly features coverage and recognition about Evolve IP, they've most recently recognized Evolve IP as being the "Best Cloud Computing Companies And CEOs To Work For In 2017". They've ranked Evolve IP in the Top 3 just behind Google and Microsoft in the Cloud Infrastructure classification. (Feb 2017). Forbes also recently recognizes Evolve IP for bringing Singer Equipment Corporation, a mainstream business based in PA, into the cloud by means of unified communication. (Sept 2017). Last year, Forbes recognized Evolve IP's survey of 1,080 executives citing that the number one reason to go to the cloud is the same reason that it is avoided. (Mar 2016).

Unified Communications Product of the Year

TMC and Internet Telephony Magazine have named Evolve IP’s unified communications platform as a 2017 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award winner. This marks the 6th time Evolve IP has been honored with this prestigious award and follows a series of product innovations that have allowed the company to rapidly expand its international coverage.

Evolve IP’s business collaboration tools and IP phone system dramatically improve employee productivity in the office and on the road with a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform that fully integrates voice, video, instant messaging & presence (IM&P), desktop sharing, audio/web conferencing and more. The company also provides a sophisticated Web-based management portal, OSSmosis®, that allows administrators to easily configure system functions and quickly modify users without the need to reach out to a third party for changes.

Inc.

Inc. magazine has recognized Evolve IP in the 34th annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive listing of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list will be unveiled in the September issue of Inc.

The story of this year's Inc. 5000 is the story of great leadership. In an incredibly competitive business landscape, it takes something extraordinary to take your company to the top," says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. "You have to remember that the average company on the Inc. 5000 grew nearly six-fold since 2012. Business owners don't achieve that kind of success by accident.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

Evolve IP has achieved Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance covering all 12 sections of the PCI DSS. The PCI data security standard is a comprehensive set of standards that require merchants and service providers that store, process, or transmit customer payment card data to adhere to strict information security controls and processes. It was created by the founding brands of the PCI Security Standards Council, which includes American Express, Discover Financial, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa Inc.

CSA STAR

Evolve IP is also a registered and participating member of the CSA Security, Trust & Assurance Registry (STAR). The CSA was formed to encourage transparency of security practices within cloud providers. It is a free, publicly accessible registry that documents the security controls provided by various cloud computing offerings, thereby helping users assess the security of cloud providers they currently use or are considering contracting with. CSA STAR is open to all cloud providers, and allows them to submit assessment reports that document compliance to CSA published best practices. The searchable registry will allow potential cloud customers to review the security practices of providers, accelerating their due diligence and leading to higher quality procurement experiences. CSA STAR represents a major leap forward in industry transparency, encouraging providers to make security capabilities a market differentiator.

Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500TM

Evolve IP has been ranked for the second consecutive year on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America – both public and private. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2012 to 2015. The list is a veritable Who’s Who of technology that has included tech companies like Google, VMware and Facebook.

Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, life sciences, and energy the companies – both public and private – in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth during the period from 2012 – 2016.

Red Herring

Red Herring has named Evolve IP as one of the Top 100 Companies in North America. Red Herring’s Top 100 recognizes the leading and most promising private companies from around the world. Among the over 20 criteria used to analyze companies for the award, Evolve IP was noted for its financial performance, technological innovation, customer footprint, the DNA of its founders and addressable market.

Red Herring selects the award winners for North America from approximately 1,200 privately financed companies each year in the US and Canada. Since 1996, Red Herring has kept tabs on these organizations and its editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, Palo Alto Networks and eBay would change the way we live and work.

Entrepreneur

Evolve IP has been recognized as one of the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America” in Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur360™ Performance Index, a study involving a comprehensive analysis of private companies in America. Based on this study forged by Entrepreneur, Evolve IP is recognized as a company that exemplifies growth, not just in top and bottom line, but in sustainability and the ability to achieve lasting success.

According to Entrepreneur, after evaluating approximately 10,000 U.S. based firms, the team of editors and researchers behind the E360 Performance Index collected more than 250 pieces of data from the finalists, focusing on growth drivers and challenges, goal setting, resource allocations, and reward systems. The analysis uncovered a class of leading companies, including Evolve IP, whose continued success is largely based on superior value creation for their customers, building an adaptive learning culture, and aggressive geographic expansion—placing them amongst the most dynamic firms in America today.